Meet Selena O’Connor of Olive Alchemy in Calabasas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Selena O’Connor.

Selena, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Berkeley, home to the California’s healthy gourmet food movement. My mother had been working for ten years with our supplier, which is a 90-year old family-owned Bay Area business. After college, I relocated to Los Angeles, which is my Mom’s birthplace, and grew to love the West Valley – its Mediterranean landscape and climate.

With a well-educated, family-oriented community, and an appreciation for health and good taste, it seemed to be a perfect setting for a gourmet oil & vinegar tasting room and boutique. I loved the idea of running my own shop after working in restaurants since high school. As a new mom and business owner, these fresh olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars have made cooking for my family so much easier. They add so much flavor as well as health benefits that many people are unaware of and I am able educate and share that with everyone who walks in to Olive Alchemy. With a degree from the University of Miami in Florida in Business Marketing and five years spent in food service, I am combining my education and experience with food and work. I love sharing my passion for a healthy lifestyle with the community.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Running a retail store today is an act of love and hard work, in-light of the competition we face from chain mega-stores and generic e-commerce. Our opportunity, however, is to create a genuine quality customer experience through individual tastings and education of our fresh and tasty products. We are the local face in the trend of multi-national, non-personalized product marketing.

Getting our doors open was a big hurdle due to the strictness of food regulations and required a lot of investment before we could even open. The construction, permit process, and dealing with multiple regulatory agencies along the way was a frustrating journey we were not expecting. Being Chamber of Commerce members was a great help.

It was a big sigh of relief, six months after lease signing, to finally open our doors and have our ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce and Mayor of Calabasas present.

Since opening in May 2016, we have built a loyal customer base, but as we are in a local and destination shopping center, being known to the greater San Fernando Valley and southern Ventura County community has been a challenge. Having just celebrated our one year anniversary, we are excited to grow our business and share the enjoyment and knowledge of the benefits of our fabulous oils and vinegars.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Olive Alchemy – what should we know?
Olive Alchemy is a local woman-owned retail store and tasting room, offering both global and local specialty food items. We put on our own educational events to share our knowledge, and give tastings both in-store and out for groups. We also offer the community a special event venue and customers book our space for their own gatherings, date nights, corporate team building, “mom’s night out”, etc. in which we curate tastings and offer house-made appetizers showing ways to use our products.

Olive Alchemy sells directly-sourced, fresh bulk olive oils from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, bottled on demand for each individual customer. Our Fall-Winter oils feature the newest offerings of extra virgin olive oils from Europe and California, while our Spring-Summer features are from South America, Australia, and South Africa. Our Solera Aged balsamic vinegar condiment, directly sourced for us from Modena, Italy, is cooked in copper-kettles, aged in natural wood barrels, and caramelized without artificial coloring, thickeners, or sweeteners. These fine, dark and white balsamic condiments, aged up to 18 years, are offered in bulk to our customers in Traditional and over 30+ original infused natural flavorings.

In addition, we introduce our customers to new locally-made and imported gourmet foods, including “the best olives you’ve ever tasted” that are stuffed with a variety of ingredients and perfect alone or in a martini!

We carry a fantastic line of body care products from Marin County made with California Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And our line of Tunisian (also an originator of some of our finest extra virgin olive oils) hand-painted ceramic tableware and olive wood makes for a one stop shop for gifts for the food appreciator and gourmet chef alike.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
This is truly a family business, and requires daily attention that is nearly impossible to achieve alone. My mother, who has 15 years-experience in artisan food manufacturing, has been my biggest support as my business partner. As this has been a first experience as business owners for the both of us, we’ve both had to learn a lot and make mistakes, and like all innovators, adjust along the way, and are still learning new things every day.

My step-father has supported us as a 30 -year professional in graphic design. He produces our photographic, print and web designs, and aided in the construction.

My partner has played a huge part as he helped initially in getting our fantastic location and is there every day to listen to my problems, successes, and offer solutions with his business experience. I especially appreciate his local family, who have been a huge support, since I am a mother of a two-year old- birthing the business along with our baby. My own extended family, especially my grandmothers, and 25 uncles, aunts, and cousins who are loyal on-line customers.

Our employee has been a tremendous source of experience in helping us build our present good customer relations. We benefitted initially from a small Kiva Zip loan, and it’s been great to be a Calabasas Chamber member, getting us recognition from the City when we opened, and I have enjoyed building a real business community among chamber members. My local MOMs Club, and advice from them as many are “Mompreneurs” themselves, has made the challenge of being a (24/7) working mom easier to handle.

Pricing:

• Small bottle oil or vinegar (200 ml) – $12
• Medium bottle oil or vinegar (375 ml) – $18
• Large bottle oil or vinegar (750 ml) – $32

Contact Info:

• Address: 4774 Park Granada #5
  Calabasas, CA 91302
• Website: www.olivealchemy.net
• Phone: (747) 226-3767
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @olivealchemycalabasas
• Facebook: facebook.com/olivealchemycalabasas
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/olive-alchemy-calabasas

Image Credit:
Marissa Elizabeth
Guillermo Prado

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.